Movie Review : ‘Heroine’ (**Two Star)

(By Akshat Sharma) Director Madhur Bhandharkar has a reputation for creating movies which connect with reality. He has done it in his movies like ‘Chandni Bar’, ‘Fashion’, ‘Page 3’, ‘Corporate’ and he taken inspiration from Bollywood for his latest movie ‘Heroine’. Madhur’s heroine has many shades. She is moody, impulsive, brash and vulnerable at the same time.

The central character of Mahi Arora (played by Kareena Kapoor) is a complex one. She is a top shot heroine in Bollywood, a world which director Madhur Bhandarkar is the most familiar with. Mahi is dating a married superstar named Aryan Khanna (played by Arjun Rampal) who is confused person. He is guy who doesn’t know till the end what should be done. This confusion gets on Mahi’s nerve because she wants clarity on her relationship with Aryan.

This puts additional pressure on Mahi in a highly competitive glamour industry and she starts losing out to her rivals and even newcomers. Glamour industry as we all know is very fickle and insecure. One of the best scenes in the movie is between Kareena’s character and the character artist one played by Helen. She has a philosophical attitude towards life and the industry as she knows what glitters today will bite the dust tomorrow.

Mahi in her desperation to be clear on all issues gets dumped by Aryan and this rude shock sends her into tizzy. She finds a new boyfriend in a cricketer named Angad Paul (played by Randeep Hooda). Angad’s character is tantalizingly close to real life cricketer Yuvraj Singh. Angad is the vice captain of the Indian cricket team and he has special interest in beauties from Bollywood. He falls in love with Mahi and Mahi’s confusion makes her career take a dip.

To strengthen her career prospects Mahi plays every trick in the book. From working with off-beat small budget directors to hiring a PR person who plants all kind of stories in media just for publicity. So much so that to promote her small budget movie Mahi agrees to circulate a private lovemaking video in which she is seen having sex with Aryan Khanna.

Although the movie succeeds but Mahi feels bruised deep inside. Her movie is a hit but personally she has lost everything. To come out of this situation she decides to quit the glam world and starts living life somewhere in Europe where she could get away all this hoopla about her sex video clip and other kind of negative publicity.

The storyline of the movie sounds familiar to us but that has been Madhur Bhandarkar’s style. This time even the treatment is no different. This movie becomes watchable thanks to credible performances given by lead actors. Kareena Kapoor has played the role of an a movie star quite convincingly and it could be rated as one of her best performances till date. She looks believable and her stunning looks with a heavy dosage of close cleavage shots give her role a perfect mix of sense and sensuality.

Arjun Rampal and Randeep Hooda have done well in their roles. It seems Arjun Rampal can act if gets a good director. He is the next Jackie Shroff of our industry. Randeep Hooda has developed himself into a well groomed actor. He has done justice to his role of a playboy cricket. Even the support cast in the movie have performed really well. There is scene in the movie where Mahi goes to an orphanage to adopt a child and become a single parent. There she is pitted against some artist who plays a nun .That artist has delivered a fantastic performance even in a two minute role.

Music of the movie is better than the most of Madhur Bhandarkar movies. Songs like ‘Halkat Jawani’ and ‘Sayiaan’ are impressive. Editing could have been better because a 148 minute movie looks stretched specially in the first half. Second half is better than the first one.

Watching this movie is not a bad idea specially if you want to know how the Bollywood functions in desperate times. The movie does not represent the real face of Bollywood but it has the shades which you would like to see.